To Defy A King: The Akashic Sessions

King John lives down to his reputation

2010-04-25T03:53:00.000-07:00

Today I am posting a few snippets involving King John. Some of the pieces are from research notes taken while I was researching THE TIME OF SINGING (to be published as FOR THE KING'S FAVOR in the USA) but they all go together to help build a picture of the man.

Photo credits to Regia Anglorum.

Ida de Tosney, mistress of Henry II and her relationship with John in the 1170’s

Alison: Euuwww – John has this effect on people – I felt a sort of lurching pulling in of the solar plexus – as if Ida was going to be sick. Eeeuwww. Ida finds John’s mouth particularly repulsive. He’s got a bottom lip that droops forward a little bit. She finds it repulsive and slimy. She doesn’t like his hands. It’s sexual connotations as well. She’s frightened of him. He’s very forceful in a very focused narrow way. When he puts his focus on someone he really focuses. She really doesn’t like him. If she has to have anything to do with him, she melts away, she goes into the furniture, it’s as if she’s not there. And what does John think of her? He’s a real predator. He regards her as a prostitute who’s fair game for anyone really. He’d be ready to get his leg over there. He likes to scare her by making a sort of false pounce on her to make her jump – pretend fighting. He does watch her out of the corner of his eyes. There’s a little bit of jealously there. Of his father? No, of her – being close to his father as he sees it. He likes to keep a clear field between himself and his father as much as possible. He’s a bit like a minesweeper round his father. It’s about the pecking order. So while he thinks she’s fair game does he not jump on her because his father would jump on him? What stops him from doing so? Opportunity. So if he caught her alone he’d have her then? I think if Henry was out of the way, I think he would, yes. He’d think it was fair do’s. He’s a king’s son. Who has greater claim on such things? He wouldn’t be bothered about his father being upset about it? Ah well, you know, all that would be provisional on his father not knowing. He wouldn’t get caught. (but of course he always did get caught as his life progressed!

How does Hamelin, Earl of Surrey, King Henry II's half brother feel about John his nephew? He feels sick in his throat. His mouth purses and it’s as if he’s got a bad taste in his mouth – like a lemon. He wants to suck his lips in, suck his teeth. It’s quite an unpleasant feeling. It’s almost as if he’s having to put his hand out to fend himself away from John and sort of step round him. Keep his distance. There’s a touch of ‘the younger generation, they’re so rough. Don’t approve of the younger generation, but in particular this one is distasteful. It doesn’t matter what he tries to dress it up with, syrup or cream, it still doesn’t taste right.

So his attitude towards John re John’s relationship with his daughter.

Hmmm, horrible sick feeling in the solar plexus now. His head is bowed and he’s sucking in his cheeks and his teeth. I would say defeated. A horrible feeling. It makes him feel unwell. From the waist down it makes him feel unwell. His legs have sort of shooting horrible feelings down them. But he will not be beaten. He comes up with this screwed up face ‘but I will not be defeated.’ Then a hardness comes into him, His whole being is pushing John away, keeping him at a safe distance. Unbeknown to Alison, John seduced Hamelin’s daughter and got her pregnant. This was seen as a distasteful scandal at the time because the kinship tie made it close to incestuous re the medieval mindset. So I wonder if his feelings from the waist down were connected with this – a sort of ‘shrinking of the loins?’

How does John he feel about William Longespee, his bastard half-brother? First when William was a little boy and then when he was older.

Alison: Initially John liked to tease William but the teasing didn’t have much effect so he got bored with it. I think William just glided over the teasing. It didn’t seem to upset him. I think also this ability to be very mannered and regal that William has, is not ruffled by other people being less mannered and less regal. It gives William more control in fact. It seems to me that because of this it’s as if he’s the older one in character rather than John. And how does John perceive this? He just gets bored with being nasty to him and he’s someone whom John feels safe in turning his back to. He thinks he’s safe. And he also takes William for granted. He just turns his back and goes to tease someone else.

And then older? When William in his teens?

John is more practised in being sly now. He’s looking through the corners of his eyes. He’s starting to get jealous of William. All the girls like William and John doesn’t like that at all. He’s nasty to the girls who like William. I can see him with a knife. I could see him cutting the tip off a woman's plait. William doesn’t know this is going on because he doesn’t particularly know the ladies like him. Everybody likes him, that’s just the way he is. Some people find him a bit superficial – his mannerisms are like a façade. People generally like him but some people find that they can’t really get close to him because of that façade and they can’t get that emotional response from him.

John feels as long as William keeps to his place, he can feel content. John doesn’t feel threatened. He watches like a cat watches a mouse but there’s a clearly defined gap between them and William doesn’t go over it at all.

Now to Eleanor of Aquitaine. What does she think about the fact that the King of France and her son John have been offering bribes to the Emperor to keep Richard prisoner? Her cheeks suck in. She says ‘What?...What?!!! I will kill them!’ When she thinks of John she sees him as grey. When she thinks of Richard she sees him as gold and red and silver. I am seeing a cross very high up. I’m getting the feeling that she can believe it of the king of France but she can’t quite believe it of her son.

King John having an 'interview' with his hostage, William Marshal Junior.
Alison: He’s reading. He’s quite on a level emotionally. He’s working with his brain at the moment. He’s reading mainly for information. Occasionally he’s noting something. I don’t know if it’s a mental note or a real note, but it’s like he’s noting important points now and then. He’s writing every so often as well. FFW to when William Marshal Junior arrives. John is mostly still in this level frame of mind. Very shrewd. Turning his attention to that matter. He’s focusing on William the person rather than what William is saying and he’s sizing up that person. It’s almost as if he’s got William Jnr on a bell rope – strung up. You know how a bell rope can take you up a little way and then back down – it’s that image. It’s a bit like weighing somebody up and also a bit like ‘I could string him up if I wanted and he’s weighing up what to do. He’s weighing up his physique too, the muscle power in the youth and his appearance, his face. FFW. He doesn’t take any notice of what William’s said. Ah! He’s got that letter that William had before. He’d been reading it earlier and it’s already on the table. He takes it out again and he’s kind of dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s and asking about the details – such as ‘And how many men would that be? How many supplies? What would he be taking over there? You do realise that it would incur a tax of….’ William Jnr is having to say ‘I am sure

my father will have realised this and will be sending you that. He’s having to gloss it over. John’s doing this all the way down to the bottom of the page, and then he lets it flip. He’s putting his teeth edges together and opening his lips and bearing his teeth – almost as if he’s sizing William up to take a bite somehow and see what he would taste like. John is saying ‘As long as your father realises the costs involved, we will allow him to go. I don’t know if this is right or not because it’s words but I am getting ‘Be back by March.’ I got a feeling like a tennis ball just in my stomach. There are loads of issues going through John’s mind. He doesn’t like it but he seems to feel a bit powerless. He doesn’t like the machinations behind it. He’s not just seeing William, he’s seeing quite a few different people as well, including the ecclesiastical person I saw in an earlier session. It’s about trust and assessing the motivations behind William’s desire to go to Ireland. He thinks they’re plotting. They’re obviously doing something that he’s not involved in; he doesn’t like that. Because he’s not part of that circle he can’t guess or tell what is actually going on – so that’s what makes him feel powerless. It might all be bland; on the surface it might look bland, but because he doesn’t know what’s going on, on the inside, he can’t feel okay about it. He can only feel mistrustful, because what he doesn’t know is a threat to him. So how does the interview end? He goes off into his own thoughts and there’s a silence. Then he remembers William Jnr is there and says that a letter will be prepared. You’ll have to come back for it. He also says ‘Remember your father owes me.’ He’s thinking about the taxes, but it’s deeper than that as well.

When William goes, there’s a look of hurt on John’s face, and then it’s thoughtfulness.

King John’s visit to Framlingham in 1213 from Mahelt’s viewpoint.

Alison: Well this feels very different. This feels like stopped in her tracks. Oooof!

I don’t want him here, I told you I don’t want him here! Ooh, she’s very strong-willed. I’ve told you before I don’t want him here. Her face is thunder. Ohh. He will find fault with everything. There is nothing I can do that will satisfy or please him. I know that that will be the case. So why should I bother trying? Oh, she’s so cross. She’s kicking things. She’s picking on people. She’s full of energy. Oooof, spiky. FFW to when he arrives. She’s calmed down. It’s more like she’s glowering from under her eyebrows now. Her mouth is pursed as if it’s trying hard to keep it closed. Oh God, she’s saying ‘I don’t like him for all that he’s done to my father. I don’t like him. He’s a nasty man. I don’t see why we should have him here.’ Who she’s saying this to? Mostly Hugh, but anyone else who’s around. Anyone who’ll listen. She’s not bothered in the least. And she’s so wound up she’s looking daggers at the servants. If they make one wrong move she pounces on them. They have to do everything she says.

There’s real revulsion there. She’s having to swallow down her anger, and almost her sick. She hates the man with a vengeance. John’s coming in and she’s watching him from above. She comes down to meet him.When she was above she was filled with revulsion. She didn’t want to go down there, but she put on this façade and the revulsion evaporated somewhere and she was able to just be the façade which was completely neutral, the diplomat. Mmmm, she can do what her dad did, she can do that.
When she turns to show John the way to his chamber, her face changes completely, so she's not quite like her father. Some elements are like him but the face doesn’t stay. She shows John into the best room and she checks round it with a knowing eye for how everything should look and how everything should be and luckily for the servants it is. She has arranged everything for John’s entertainment. There’s a chess board he can sit at where she puts him right away. There’s a musical instrument – it’s stringed and it’s flat and it’s got two square sides and a bent side, so he can have someone play it. So she shows him all these things and then she’s just about to go and he says ‘Oh no, don’t go, not you.’ ‘Eeugggh,’ she thinks and her spirits sink as she thinks she’s got to stay there. She’s adjusting the candles and the curtains and she says ‘I must go and prepare the dinner. I really need to sort out one or two things.’ So of course John has to reluctantly be gracious and let her go then. She’s muttering all the way down to the kitchen. When she doesn’t like someone, she doesn’t like them. It’s a very cursory look round the kitchen because she knows everything’s okay and I don’t think she’d care very much if it wasn’t. She goes down even further into the cellars. She checks the wine. She has a drink of wine herself. She thinks, ‘Ah, peace and quiet. It’s cool down there. Dark and peaceful. No one will bother her.

Was John fancying her, or was it just part of his usual power games? It’s the same thing, that lecherousness is the same thing to him as power. It’s like spider and a fly. I don’t think he’s enamoured but it’s his way of imposing himself on everything and everybody.

Now Go to 1214 and Ela, wife of William of Salisbury and see a significant interaction between her and King John while Salisbury was a hostage after the disastrous battle of Bouvines.

Alison: This is a very still, self-contained person. I am tempted to say still water that runs deep. Very proper on the surface. She feels things very deeply and in a way that doesn’t always have words, just feelings. It’s as if certain things make the depth of her water fluctuate and change and that’s how she understands the world. If you imagine a very deep, pointed crevice of water, and when John is around, it vibrates the water and it’s like a warning message to her – almost fear. She can sense him, she can sense his predatoriness and his watchfulness. He doesn’t have to say or do anything and it’s just like she picks those feelings up, but she can maintain a courteous surface and do everything right, yet he tries to get round the back of her. He tries to move up closer and this is very uncomfortable because she doesn’t know how to move away from it because she has to not transgress any manners herself, so how do you do that and keep him at bay?

They’re having a meal. Ugggh. It seems like a buffet, it’s not a sit down meal because they’re not sitting at the table. He’s got this shelled egg, hard-boiled, so it’s white. It’s just revolting. He’s trying to get her to swallow it. He’s being very manipulative with it. He’s putting it in her mouth. It’s really unpleasant. He’s being pretend-nice about it. And of course she can’t get the whole thing in her mouth at once so she has to bite down and he just loves that, it’s just all so sensuous. Then she eats the part that she’s got and he’s almost forcing the other half into her mouth and he’s saying how wonderful this egg is and how immaculate. I think it may have been impregnated with something to make it exceptional. She’s gagging after he’s turned away. She’s absolutely gagging, wants to be sick.

William Longespee

2010-04-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

This Sunday in the run up to the publication of TO DEFY A KING, I am publishing some Akashic excerpts concerning William Longespee, bastard half-brother to Hugh Bigod and son of King Henry II.

I used this first excerpt in THE TIME OF SINGING (FOR THE KING'S FAVOR IN THE USA)
Readers might recognise it from the novel. This is where young William Longespee, first sets eyes on his half brother Hugh Bigod.

Alison: I’m with a very still person, or very still at the moment. His energy comes from the heart and it’s raying out from there. He has a very straight back and sits regally as if on a throne, with his chin up. Very straight indeed. This gives him the appearance of looking down on people. He has dark hair which is slightly wavy and thick. It gives the appearance of being darker than it is but I think this is because he himself gives the appearance of being very vivid. Everything about him is deep and rich. He has Ida’s eyes – soft and brown.

Ah, William has the advantage because he’s watching Hugh, who is playing outside. I can see him running, chasing something. It’s a ball game – rugby or football or something similar with manhandling involved. You have to grab the person with the ball to get it off him. Involves tussling and running about. Hugh is being pointed out to William and William looks. When he focuses he really focuses. You can almost see the line drawn between his eyes and the object. Oh, Hugh has lovely muscles William is watching him and seeing how good the lad is at the game and his lively tussle of hair. He’s quite different to William – unrestrained, very natural and has an easy-going mien about him. When the game’s over, he walks off the field with an easy air. William doesn’t approve of that kind of style because he’s been taught that his way is the proper one. And now he looks at his mother who his looking at Hugh with adoration in her eyes and he thinks ‘if she had brought me up, I could have ended up like that. Better the way it is.’

Hugh and Longespee had a very difficult relationship. Here is one of several incidents that caused the ongoing difficulties.

Alison: I can see a beautiful white horse and someone riding it. It’s got a cloth that goes down almost to its knees. That’s beautiful as well. It’s white with vertical stripes on. The vertical stripes accentuate the flare at the bottom and are almost like pleats. There’s gold fringing on the bottom – exquisite. I think these lines are blue - lovely. And then I saw another horse join it. It’s dark with a white flash on its nose. And Hugh seems to be standing watching. I can’t see how he’s involved with this. Just give me a few minutes to sort out what’s happened. It looks like it’s a race. Ohhh! Alison gives a sharp cry of distress. Gasps. ‘Oh God. This really gets to me because I hate it when animals are hurt. It’s really a bit worse than humans. What I saw was that the white horse was being raced against the dark horse. It was Hugh’s horse, a beautiful, beautiful horse. He lent it to Salisbury, and Salisbury was thrashing the life out of it and it fell at full gallop on both front knees. He was pushing it far too hard and riding it dangerously. It was only supposed to be a friendly little match. Salisbury just wanted to have a go and put it through its paces. Sigh. Long silence. Salisbury seems to have got away with it unscathed and just says ‘Oh, you know, Hugh, it’s only a horse. I’ll give you the money to get another.’ So the horse has to be killed? Yes.

But it wasn't terrible all of the time. Now to an incident with Longespee getting on with his Bigod relations

Alison: I can see a carved pole and when I say carved I mean something like a banister post but much longer on its own, and two hands, one up here and one down there (indicates) and two flappy things that come off this carved thing. It’s a musical instrument – like a recorder. I’m just wondering what connection it is with Salisbury. Ah, Salisbury’s listening to it. It’s a woman who’s playing it. Oh, it’s very mellifluous to his ears, it’s very pleasurable. It’s a nice sound, it’s flowing. It doesn’t have any of the staccato sound of a modern recorder. It’s much more mellow. These flappy things are pieces of material that decorate it, like you’d see on a fanfare trumpet, but there are two smaller ones, one at the top and one at the bottom. Aaaah….Oh they’re singing. The people there are singing to it and it’s lovely. Ohhhhhh, Ida’s singing especially. And Roger! The whole family are singing, and it’s just gorgeous. Salisbury doesn’t really know the words but occasionally hums along to it and mostly listens. He only hums along when he’s moved to. It’s not as if he’s got an individual part. They’re all a group together and they’re all part of the performance, part of the experience. Bliss. This he’s never ever experienced before in his life. Nothing like this. He’s got this warm feeling in his stomach and it’s moving about in time to the music. Eventually his voice starts to flow and he really holds the last note fully with everyone else, in fact a little bit over because he doesn’t know the song, so he lengthens the note after everyone’s finished. And everyone’s amused and laughs and claps. In fact he gets an extra clap. It’s a nice experience for him.

Hugh and Longespee together in Ireland in late spring 1210.

Alison: Poof! I got a real sort of pushing in of the stomach which pushed the air out of Hugh. I don’t know what it means. It’s a friendly greeting from Salisbury - sort of ‘Hey there old chap!’

To which Hugh can just respond by patting Salisbury on his back and replying ‘Hey there!’ with what breath he had left. It’s a disarming and drinking session. Food. I can see a spit with fire underneath. It’s getting dark. It’s outdoors. I can hardly believe this from what we have seen in the past, but they’re getting on. They’re lying side by side on the ground, looking at the sky and talking. What their wives will be doing at home now and how they feel about their wives. Salisbury is saying to Hugh, ‘About this time of night I always think of Ela and what she’ll be doing. She’ll be combing her hair and taking off her jewellery and I’ll see her little cherub mouth smiling at me. And then I’ll see all the garment she has to put on. (put on?!) Yes! I can see really beautifully wrought things, but layers. He did have that kind of wry smile as if to say ‘what for?’ and a little bit of frustration. And then she will disappear out of the room. And when she comes back into the room I’ll be warm, and she’ll want to be warm as well. I don’t know if he’s actually able to explain this to Hugh but the feelings that Salisbury has is of her little body next to his. She’s like a little doll with all these layers of freshly laundered linen and her bare feet sticking out and they come out higher up than his where they are sitting because he is taller than her and she’s just lying entwined there with her head under his chin. He says ‘And that’s when I really like it. When I really feel I have a home.’ I get a real resonance in the stomach and a warm glow all through his body. ‘That’s when I know I’m home.’ His eyes water as he looks up at the sky because this is completely different, nothing like home with the hard ground, the open air, no comfort, men all around. Does Hugh reciprocate? Hugh is really sad and taken aback because he hasn’t got any of that now and he just says ‘I know what you mean.’ His feelings are mixed. He’s trying to salvage some of the good things and it’s as if his memories are going backwards and forwards to the good times and the bad times. He’s bringing his focus in very small to avoid that see-sawing of feelings. He’s just bringing it down to a close up of Mahelt’s hair and his thumb through it. He becomes wistful and they are both quiet. Salisbury drops off to sleep and Hugh continues looking at the stars until he too falls asleep.

In this excerpt, Ralph Bigod, Hugh's younger brother, has been captured along with Longespee following the disastrous Battle of Bouvines.

Alison: There’s a lot of discomfort in the solar plexus stomach area. He’s feeling very uncomfortable and miserable. Chin jutting out, the left hand thumping his thigh. He’s keeping very alert. He feels vulnerable. He’s watching everywhere. He’s using the skills of the battlefield in the situation although he hasn’t got his weapons. He feels very vulnerable without his weapons. He’s still in a killing frame of mind and trying to work out ways to kill people. He’s expecting to be killed himself as well. Does he think being Salisbury’s brother might help him out here? He’s got no preconceptions. He’s seen things on the battlefield he wouldn’t have expected. At the end, it doesn’t matter who you are, you can still die. Alison looks for Salisbury. They’re not close together as in side by side; there are a lot of people there. Salisbury is ahead and to his right. When he thinks of Salisbury, he gets another kind of expression on his face. There’s an element of ‘we didn’t quite make it, an element of feeling that he’s let Salisbury down, although there’s a part of him that knows logically he hasn’t, because it was beyond his control, but emotionally he still feels that. It’s not exactly that he’s let him down, that’s part of it. It’s more that he didn’t do enough. He doesn’t feel he’s done everything he should have been able to do. But there again, if he had, he might have been worse off than he is now. Ah! I think it’s about the actual surrender. I don’t think Salisbury was as willing to surrender as Ralph was. Ralph took it as the sensible thing to do, the practical thing. Salisbury was more about what was the right thing to do, the noble thing to do. Does Ralph expect to be ransomed? I’ll need to go further forward. This is just after the battle where everyone is milling about and being sorted out. Ralph’s seen some captives just being stabbed in the stomach and killed just in the sorting out process. Because they weren’t important enough? Yes. Ralph waits his turn. He knows that at least he won’t get stabbed in the stomach. He’ll be hanged or something if they want to get rid of him. They won’t do it straight away, and anyway he’s got his mail shirt on. He doesn’t know if Salisbury will want to own him because of their disagreements. He’s not sure of his standing with Salisbury, and a younger son of a big household doesn’t always warrant good treatment. He’s thinking maybe he should have fought on. He’s looking down at the ground as he’s thinking this. He’s demoralised. It’s damp, but quite warm. Feels like misty rain. He doesn’t care about himself. He’s going to be herded down into some dungeons with some other minor nobles and Salisbury shouts out for him. ‘Hey, he’s my kin.’ They say ‘Which one?’, so Salisbury points him out and they bring him back. He stands alongside and just behind Salisbury. Ralph’s feeling quite numb. He’s given up. He was prepared to just go into oblivion into that dark dungeon. He feels like a nobody, a servant to Salisbury. Feels like depression.

Salisbury however is bearing up well. He’s talking to the guards on an equal basis and even being witty and making a few jokes to make them laugh. He’s saying ‘If you would only give me my sword back I would show you how to do this particular manoeuvre. They reply ‘You won’t catch us on that one!’ Underneath though, Salisbury feels gutted.

He’s let the side down, his noble heritage. It’s terrible for a king to get captured, terrible for the country, and he’s so close to being a king (i.e. the son of one and the brother of one) that it’s not good. He will act nobly in the situation. Such as this has happened before. He will act nobly to his compatriots. He feels it’s up to him to keep up morale. He wants generous quarters and he’s expecting clean sheets on the beds. They’re saying ‘That will all be in good time, sire. Meantime you can stay here.’ So they’re left outside for a long time – in fact all night. They have to call for water for the people who are ailing – for their own wounded. Salisbury is trying to think through the situation, but it’s not one he has much control over. I got the words ‘The ransom will be bloody.’ I don’t understand that. Debate ensues. I am getting the information that the ransom will be in blood as well as money. The price is blood. He’s facing it very realistically. Very grittily and he’s determined. He’s bolstering up the other people, keeping up their spirits. He’s trying in his own way to send down hope and extra provisions to those worse off than himself, those in the dungeons.

The Relationship between Longespee and William Marshal Junior in 1216

Alison. William’s got a smile on his face and he’s looking to the right towards William jnr (Will). There’s a window behind Will and Salisbury is saying ‘Hey lad, come over here and we’ll have a game of dice. So he does, and it’s not just Will who comes over but several others who were with Will. They’re playing something a bit like snap where they get two together and bang them down and cheer and get excited about it. They get to a point where they’re even. Will’s about to shake the dice again when Salisbury puts his hand on him and says ‘That’s where we’ll leave it.’ There’s food and drink coming. It’s a mealtime. You know how Salisbury likes things to be perfect and jewel like and beautiful? Well he sees Will in that role. He’s like amber. He’s like a wrought piece of work. He’s like a proper courtier. Salisbury thinks of him in terms of him (Salisbury) being the royalty and Will the courtier. It’s that kind of perfection for Salisbury. It makes sense to him. It fits in with his way of seeing the world. When they go to have a meal they have a finger bowl and Will’s manners are immaculate. So are Salisbury’s of course. Salisbury appreciates that about Will. They can be on a level with things like that. They can have a laugh. They share the same sense of humour which is not too silly, it’s quite manly, quite proper. Will’s ready to go along with Salisbury, he’s not ready to make waves. However he’s not a pushover, he’ll say what he thinks, but he defers to Salisbury. Actually they got on very well on a personal level. They can share their thoughts which have quite a lot in common. When they’re looking at a situation they often see it in the same way. So the expression in the eyes of each person would be very similar as they’re looking at the same thing.

There are several more excerpts, but since they are woven strongly into the fabric of the novel and might cause big spoiles, I'll leave them in abeyance for the moment. As it is, readers will find many of the above moments woven through the storyline of TO DEFY A KING.

Week 4. Hugh Bigod.

2010-04-11T02:56:00.000-07:00

This time around I'm posting a few excerpts about Hugh Bigod and his personality. He's the hero of TO DEFY A KING and I found him to be a charismatic man with a lot on his plate, especially when it came to Mahelt Marshal!

Hugh’s relationship with his father, both as a child and as a young man

Alison: Laughs. Hmmm! He likes running into his father and trying to push him over but at leg level but of course his dad is like a mountain in comparison and he’s got no chance, but it’s good fun. And he especially likes it when his dad’s got armour on and padding. He likes biting the padding, and his father encourages him to do that, to test it, feel how strong it is, how thick it is. See if you can crush the hand guard. It’s all a bit of a game for him, but he enjoys it. And prising fingers up as well. His father plays that game with him and does silly things, so suddenly all his fingers will come up at once and come after him! But ahah, you didn’t get the sword quick enough! I can sense that he and his father have a little drink together as well even from when he was very young. And his father lets him occasionally on the front of the horse. His father likes to challenge him, but challenge him in a much more gentle way than his own father did, he really learned from those lessons of the past.

And their relationship once Hugh is older? Hugh’s very proud of his father and he thinks his father is a man in every respect. Alison laughs. Oh, I can see Hugh looking at Roger’s hat. He’s got a side-slanting hat, sticks well out at the side, and it’s as if when he thinks of his father and he’s proud of his father, he sees the hat as well. He wants to be like his father and at the early stages he felt that he would grow into that role and become that person, but its not happening and it’s probably not in his capacity to do because he’s a very different sort of person. He hasn’t got that steady stillness of purpose that his father’s got. He’s a much softer, artistic, more flexible person. He’s forever seeing the other side of things, the rotations of things, the cycles of things, interrelationships, perspectives.His father is an intelligent man, but is much more clear-cut and can go to the centre of a matter with confidence and knowledge. He builds up different perspectives in order to gain knowledge. Hugh builds up perspectives in order to see how they fit together in cycles. So it’s a different kind of knowledge. It’s a moving, flexible way of looking at things.

A very short extract describing Hugh during the marriage negotiations.

He’s a courtier. He’s a prince of his generation and not contaminated with the political shenanigans of so many barons. He has pale brown curls, blue eyes and dresses very well. He has an eye for clothes, wears a little hat that’s very becoming. It’s a new style and he’s into fashion (but not a fop). He’s a lovely man, likes poetry and he’s interesting to talk to. There’s lots of things to find out about him.

Hugh's favourite horse.

It’s black, glistening black. So smooth and shiny when you run your hand over it. Moves beautifully. When you look at it from a distance it’s perfectly proportioned, the legs and back and head. The head is so well balanced. It’s even tempered and intelligent, but willing to cooperate. Aaah, and it has soft emotions too. When Hugh gives it an apple, it makes its eyes dance. It looks kindly at Hugh, as if he knew and was pleased to have the apple from him. There’s an emotional bond there. The horse knows when Hugh is leaving the stable and doesn’t like Hugh to go away. When Hugh’s there the horse feels comfortable. They act like a team. The horse takes it for granted that Hugh’s there. It’s as though they might not take any notice of each other and take each other for granted, but somehow they know the other’s there, and somehow their movements are coordinated.

Hugh’s very careful with the looking after of the horse – making sure it has the right fodder and grooming. He tries out all the latest techniques that he can. Hugh likes to get the latest harness, but not over the top stuff. It has to have a practical use as well as to be beautiful. It has to be efficient. It has to be lightweight and fit the horse completely. Earlier I could see Hugh rubbing the horse down around the shoulders with a handful of straw. He’s looking at the horse’s knees and hooves. He likes to do that and the horse is really cooperative when he does that. The horse likes its exercise and I can feel it looking out of its stable and stamping its feet. It wants to get out. It likes fresh air. Hugh has taken its blanket off. He’s getting on the horse and they’re going for a bare-back ride. He hasn’t even put the saddle on.

Any idea of the name? (names are difficult to suss) I’ll try to get into Hugh to get the name. Alison is silent for a couple of minutes. Hmmm, well it has a rhythm like

Hefon….It ends in ‘N’ and I think it’s a vowel at the beginning. It could be ‘Ebon, (Alison pronounces it ‘Eh-bon’). I got the sense of ‘ebony’ – Ebon, so black definitely featured in the sense of the word. I say I’ll look up this word in my Anglo-Norman French Dictionary when I get home. Having done so, 'Hebon' is the Anglo French word for ebony.

Hugh's marriage to Mahelt Marshal

! It feels very right to Hugh. His full feeling has gone deeper into his solar plexus as he kneels down and puts his head down in front of his lectern. I can see a cross and I can see that he feels this is a very serious thing now and a very serious commitment. He hadn’t quite appreciated how serious it was, but now he feels in the presence of God and now he feels the responsibility for this little girl beside him. So he still thinks of her as a little girl? Yes. Responsibility for this little being. It’s more than the responsibility of a husband because it’s bringing her up as well. To do that well and then to have a wife and be a husband – it’s major. He feels that it will take up all of his time, even if he had nothing else to do. He feels a bit overwhelmed by the responsibility. He knows what it will take and for a while he feels quite awed. It’s not his usual confidence. Then he refocuses on the words of the sermon and tries to go along with that. He feels a little bit relieved. He smells something and it reminds him of the petals. He thinks ‘that’s how a man should feel on his wedding day.’ Then he thinks of the little girl and he feels quite a disappointment and sadness. Because she’s not a grown woman? Yes. This is not going to be a joyous wedding day. He knows it will come, but the joy of the wedding day is not there for him on that celebratory day. In a way he has to be older than his years to bear that. He thinks it is all for politics and he must try to bear his emotions in that mindset – it is for politics. But it will bear fruit later. He darts a look at her and sees that she is a character and forceful. He sees it just in her eyes. He knows this is no namby pamby person, no wedding in principal, but this is a really strong person. He feels in that moment that together they could fight anything. They could be invincible together. And his heart feels almost vulnerable. Can you qualify that? Because he is letting someone else into his heart. He’s opening his heart to do that, which makes him vulnerable. To make it work they would have to work to the same point of principle and goals. If there was disagreement between them it wouldn’t work, and because she was inside his heart, it would be difficult. But having done that, there’s a true affection there and very much a protection and a sense of ownership – proprietorial. A feeling of blessing her and thanking God. A very holy moment and he seems to accept his fate and be at peace with God. He can take the sacrament and it feels right. And he can watch her take the sacrament and feel concern. I can feel the ring going on her finger. They’ve finished the service and they’ve turned and are going back out of the church and into a courtyard – like a cloister courtyard with shady places to sit and colonnading. People are milling about and there’s wine being brought round.

Some time after the marriage - which wasn't consummated at the time due to Mahelt's very young age.

Alison. Hugh is doing some writing and he’s banged his pen down. He can’t concentrate. He’s pacing about the room – not a very big room but with a couple of windows in it. It’s like a tower room. He’s looking out of the windows although he’s not right up against them and he’s distracted. He’s thinking about the horses in the field and the cows, but mainly the horses. He is thinking that they just go ahead and do it, no time schedule on them. Why should it be different for him? Now he’s thinking darkly and deeply, which is very unusual for Hugh. It’s about his physical needs. He imagines the feel of Mahelt's hair, the dark smoothness winding round him. That’s what he’s sensing. I comment how erotic hair could be to a man of that period because it was all you’d get a chance of seeing in the day to day – and even then you’d be lucky and it was a husband’s privilege! It’s like a whirpool going down, dark, twined round with skeins of hair. He’s trying to write again and he can’t do it. He’s slammed his pen down again and this time he doesn’t want to go back to it. He wants to get out of the room. He wants to go riding in the wild. It’s very frustrating because he knows he’s got other things to do and he doesn’t want to be driven in this way. He’s starting to think that he needs to do something about it.

Hugh's reaction to the birth of his son.

Alison: Oooh, now Hugh. Oh! Pleased as punch! He’s pushing his right shoulder up and his head and his nose are up. And his hat is at a sort of slant because he’s got his head so high! He’s proud as punch! That’s the feeling with him. I need to just stay with that for a while to find out when he first saw the baby. Yes, I can see him looking at Roger (baby is called after granddad!) and he’s tickling him with his index finger, just around the chin. And Roger is laughing, smiling at him and waving his little arms about and going like this with his arms as if to catch the thing that’s tickling him. He’s a sweet baby. Hugh keeps looking up at Mahelt but he’s fascinated by the baby. He can’t believe that he’s created something so miraculous and wonderful. He’s just got this smile from ear to ear. In his own fairly quiet way he’s over the moon. He’s speechless. He wants to pick Mahelt up and fling his arms round her and just spin round with her, but he daren’t in case it hurts her….No, just a minute, he is! He’s doing that.

I asked to see Hugh’s reaction later on to the birth of his daughter Isabelle.

Alison: Oh this is different for Hugh! His head lurched back. I think he’s just heard the news. I’ll see if I can find out what’s happening. He’s been told the news by a woman. He wasn’t quite expecting that, I think that’s the sudden surprise. He’s used to having boys. He nods and asks if she’s well i.e. healthy. He’s told ‘Yes, my lord, very strong and well limbed.’

‘And my wife?’

The woman says ‘She’s recovering.’ And then Mahelt shouts from inside the room. (breaking protocol a bit!)

‘I’m all right, I’m all right.’

He replies ‘Oh my love, you do well, and I will send you….’ And then I saw flowers and cloves (gillyflowers are strongly clove-scented?) and I hear ‘Marguerites’ and I see fabric with flowers on, white daisy flowers. And ‘I will see you anon, keep well for me.’ He has an initial impulse that he wants to go in to see her, but it quells and then he’s back to his more relaxed self.

He’s with his sons who are playing. Alison ‘loses the picture’ for a moment. I ask her to go to where Hugh first meets his new daughter. He’s looking into her eyes; he’s looking into Isabelle’s eyes. They’re blue. It’s as if he’s looking deep, deep into her eyes and she’s doing the same to him. And he says ‘My daughter’ and he kisses her on the forehead. She’s wrapped in swaddlings and he has her cradled on his arm, and he runs the forefinger of his other hand down the centre of her body, stroking. He says ‘She’s lovely.’ It’s a very deep, instinctual feeling, an ancient feeling. It makes him feel even more at peace than usual – it’s deeper than usual. It intensifies his usual calm, thinking about the doors opening and the connections being made. I’m thinking he might be thinking about this in terms of the connections that will eventually be made in relation to her marriage. Aaaaah, this is nice! The ladies want to take her back, but he says ‘It’s all right, you can leave her with me,’ and he sits down still cradling her. Aaaah. He says ‘attend to your mistress, and when he goes in to see Mahelt, he’s carrying the baby. Mahelt says ‘She’s lovely isn’t she?’ and he says ‘I know.’ He kisses her on the side of the forehead and I can see that her hair is plaited so they must have done it up again afterwards. She says ‘Let me hold her.’ So Mahelt wants to hold her as well. She says ‘She’s got your nose. And he says ‘I hope she has your sweet nature.’ Amused looks from me and Alison, as Mahelt may be genuine and true and lovely, but she isn’t always sweet natured! Alison thinks that Hugh is truly besotted with Mahelt and does think she has a sweet nature. He kisses her on the other temple. It’s getting to feeding time, so Hugh, rather reluctantly, gets shooed out. What about the brothers seeing their sister? What about ‘Whizzy’ Roger?

Alison goes into Whizzy Roger’s mindset. Oh yes! Oh! Hopping up and down, one foot after the other. ‘And me, and me Daddy!..... Ugggh! yuk! What? That’s what he says. He takes one look at her face and says ‘Ugggh yuk! She got white flakes on her – Ugggh! She’s got lips that go (Alison demonstrates smacking sounds). Euwww!

He thinks he’ll go and play being a standard bearer because obviously this so boring and why people get worked up about babies he can’t understand. It was Hugh who was showing him the baby. He was standing up with the baby and Roger couldn’t quite see, so he was hopping up and down to have a look, had a look, having to really stand on tip-toe and peer over, went ‘yuk’ and immediately ran off to play with his standard.

Hugh learning of the death of King John

Now to Hugh receiving the news of John’s death. There’s a horrible smell. Pooh! Alison recoils. It’s not as if even my nose can smell it, I just know it’s there. My face sort of rebounded from it. I felt it was like something burning, charred. Then there was this rotting smell, then this gooey rotting smell. Just horrible. I would guess some sort of war has been going on. Hugh is heaving. He has to keep a cloth and spit into it every now and again and to hold against his face as he goes around issuing orders. There’s smoke in the air. Eeeuwww, horrible sights. Bodies of people and animals slit open, rotting. The red of fire and blood. It’s just all horrible. He’s giving orders to people to do the burying and clearing up. FFW to when he receives the news of John’s death. Oh, there’s a boy who I thought was bringing the news because he knelt down in front of Hugh, but then he just keeled over. He had his hands tied behind his back. Oh God. Alison covers her face with her cardigan. Oh God! I’ve got detach a bit. What they’ve done to this little boy – he’s a prisoner. He’s been tortured. He’s the one who says that the king has died. And they’ve tortured him to make sure that it’s true. They’ve grabbed his hair and pulled his head back and asked him again ‘Tell him what you’ve told us. That the King is dead.’ And Hugh’s reaction to this? Hugh kicks the boy in the stomach. ‘Little squirt.’ He has this feeling towards the boy because he represents part of the contingent that did all this damage. He’s holding him responsible. He’s the only bit he can get hold of. Then he turns away. He’s disgusted. Thinking ‘All this for nothing. Gone.

Hugh's reaction to the death of King John

Alison: Goes to Hugh finding out about John’s death. Hmmm, he’s got a cynical look on his face with the left side of his mouth curved, almost twisted. There’s a feeling distaste and harshness there. This is not the soft side of Hugh that we’ve seen before, it’s a hardened side of him, hardened through experience. He’s saying ‘I’ll never stop fighting, never. For the honour of my family, for the safety of my family, until I’m sure I’m on safe ground and I have proper recompense. Not until I have a written guarantee. Until I get that I can’t go back because I am not on firm ground and when I am not on firm ground, I can fall through so easily just like that and be lost forever. I’d rather be lost fighting knowing that I’ve done my best to save myself than to fall through the earth with untrustworthy people and shifting situations. I can’t trust to those. I must trust only to my own arm and the people around me who I trust. He’s thinking all the time of Mahelt in the sense of defending her and his family. It feels like a harsh, thin steel which is not particularly to his taste, not what he would choose for himself, but this is something he has to do.

From Matthew Paris

On September 21^st he (John) set out to begin the work for which he had come from the west. The story of that day and the next as told by Matthew Paris – how the king went first to Oundle and thence to the other manors of the Abbey of Peterborough, burning the houses and barns; how he passed on to Crowland and bade Savaric de Mauleon fire the abbey church and the village while he himself stood at a distance to watch the blaze; how Savaric yielded to the monks’ prayer for mercy, and accepted from them as the price of their escape, a sum of money which he brought back to John, and how the furious king, after overwhelming his too placable lieutenant with abuse, helped with his own hands to fire the harvest fields, running up and down amid the smoke and the flames till the whole territory of St. Guthlac was a blackened desert…..After that John sent his mercenaries into the Isle of Axholme with fire and sword…. ‘From Lincoln northward to Grimsby, and thence south again to Spalding, the Lincolnshire fields – now at the beginning of October, all white to harvest – were given to the flames and the houses and farm buildings sacked and destroyed by the terrible host with the king at its head.’

Hugh deciding what to do now John is dead.

Alison: Hmmm, he’s got a cynical look on his face with the left side of his mouth curved, almost twisted. There’s a feeling distaste and harshness there. This is not the soft side of Hugh that we’ve seen before, it’s a hardened side of him, hardened through experience. He’s saying ‘I’ll never stop fighting, never. For the honour of my family, for the safety of my family, until I’m sure I’m on safe ground and I have proper recompense. Not until I have a written guarantee. Until I get that I can’t go back because I am not on firm ground and when I am not on firm ground, I can fall through so easily just like that and be lost forever. I’d rather be lost fighting knowing that I’ve done my best to save myself than to fall through the earth with untrustworthy people and shifting situations. I can’t trust to those. I must trust only to my own arm and the people around me who I trust. He’s thinking all the time of Mahelt in the sense of defending her and his family. It feels like a harsh, thin steel which is not particularly to his taste, not what he would choose for himself, but this is something he has to do.

Week 3. Brothers and hostages

2010-04-04T02:51:00.000-07:00

This week I'm posting excerpts from the Akashic Records with regard to Mahelt and her brothers when the youths were taken hostage. There are also brief snapshots showing Hugh's brothers, and a piece concerning Hugh's brother Ralph and his relationship with William Earl of Salisbury.

I asked to see Mahelt’s response to her brothers being taken hostage. Will first.

Alison: Mahelt has got her chin very set, her lips downward bending. She’s swallowing and pressing her tongue to her teeth. She screwing up all her courage and anger into that mouth movement. It’s determination. She’s saying ‘Hah, let him try, let him try to break my brother. Let him just try. My brother’s not for breaking. He’ll stand firm and true to the lion. He will be no other than a lion. And the lion favour I offered him will remind him of that always.’ I feel as if there are tears, but she’s ignoring them. She’s not sobbing, it’s just that the tears are flowing. She’s saying ‘I will never let my brother go. He is always in my heart. Always, always, always. I will be brave as he will be brave. She’s with Will. I can see that they’re on a stone floor and she’s kneeling down and they are embracing. She’s saying ‘Never leave us, never leave us in spirit.' He says ‘Surely I will not. I am of true blood as you are. I thank you for this gift and I will wear it always.’ And what he has is a silk thing folded up into a little packet and I think it’s a banner that you put on a stick. He picks her up from the floor. He swings her round. I saw his hat fall. It’s a little cap hat with a raised edge, a black one. It fell on the floor as they embraced. She’s feeling his skin and his hair. It’s as if she can even feel his eye against hers. It’s really a moment where she’s reaching to try and get inside someone. There’s a real feeling of fear in her stomach, like an electrical feeling resonating and lines going up. She doesn’t know what it will be like without him. There’s going to be a hole, like when you cut your finger and there’s a hole in your finger where you lose a flap of skin. This moment seems to be going on for a long time. She’s not letting go easily. She’s having to be taken away by somebody else – to be dragged off him really. Yes, it’s her father who’s dragging her off and she’s fighting with her fists against him. He’s passing her onto a maid and he’s going forward to talk to Will and to sort out the situation with Will.

Then Richard leaving as a hostage?

Alison: Mahelt is really angry now. She’s got her lips pursed and she’s saying ‘I will not go. I will not go and see him. No! And the reason is she can’t bear it. She can’t bear to go through it again and Oh! Cold shivers going down her body form the shoulders down, one after the other. It’s horrible. Someone’s come in at the door and has said ‘He’s going now. Are you going to say goodbye?’ She says ‘No, I’m not.’ And she can’t. She can’t bear it. All the emotion has welled up inside her. She think she will go to the window and secretly watch him going from a distance but she can’t bear to go up close to him because she knows he will never be the same again. (Alison crying here). She thinks of the tunic she’s been embroidering for him and she will send it on…because it’s not finished and she doesn’t want to give it to him now, she doesn’t want to see him. In fact she thinks she’ll have a drink now.

I comment that she’d have gone to her wedding very shortly after this and her family were on the verge of emigrating to Ireland. How does this affect her?

Alison: She’s so upset from this (Richard leaving). Taking all her self control to bring herself around. Every so often she goes off into a rage either internally or just a little bit showing on the surface. She has a lot of emotion stored up inside, pent up anger. How does she feel towards John? ‘Phwoo, if she had a knife, I think she’d stick it in him. She’d come out in a tantrum I think. Then what? Her marriage. Everything’s gone silent. She’s looking at the coffer. It’s a completely plain coffer with an overhanging lid bigger than the base so it makes a good seat. She goes and sits on it as well and it’s peaceful. Because it’s so plain and clean it can give her that feeling of peace and contentment. She’s sighing, trying to come down back to where she needs to be herself.

And she sits there for a long time before her legs start kicking – a sign with her that she wants to do something else. She goes to look out of the window. Then she turns back to the coffer. She wants to just sort through it again. Everything in there is very neatly folded. It’s all complete, nothing left to do. It gives her a feeling of peacefulness to see everything well ordered and to feel it well ordered and to put her hands on it – it makes her feel better. These are things she’s taking to her marriage then? Yes, they’re mostly textiles, clothes, linen. I don’t mean plain linen, not table linen or bed linen. These are finer things, coloured things and there are some objects as well – like little dice-shaped things on a chain. Might be curtain tie-backs. Something to do with soft furnishings. I can see that they fit onto small brackety hook things in the wall and hold drapes back. So she’s settled herself down now? Yes. She’s banged the lid shut and she’s shouting to the servant. She wants a bowl of water with rose petals in it. She wants to wash and that’s making her feel better, washing herself, particularly washing her eyes, I suppose because she’s been crying. She’s tidying her dress. It’s very fitted at the waist. She’s tightening it, making it smooth. She’s feeling better now. She doesn’t want to wear her wimple. She’s thinking ‘What’s the point?’ Can’t be bothered with it. She’s thinking if I just coil my plait and put something over it, I won’t have all this stuff over my shoulders and nobody will see anything.

And her feelings about her family going off to Ireland? She’s very settled with that. She feels it’s very much her role (marriage) and what she’s meant to do and they’re fulfilling their role and what they’re meant to do. She’s had a role model as well from her parents of how you do that and how you fulfil your duties, so she’s always expected to have to do that anyway. She doesn’t have any pangs about them going off because she’s used to that as well – to her parents going off to do to things. So it’s not a big thing for her. She’s more upset about her brothers because they are going into captivity. They’re not fulfilling their roles, they are being captured by an evil man, that’s how she feels. They’re losing their freedom, so they can’t go off and do the roles that she and their parents are doing.

Now to William Marshal Junior when John demanded him as a hostage. I have shown this in The Scarlet Lion (my imagined version) and I’ve seen it done from Mahelt’s viewpoint in an earlier Akashic research, (pasted above) but here I asked to see it from the youth’s viewpoint to get an idea of his character.

Alison: He is a lovely looking boy. He has dark, shiny hair, dark lashes, and brown eyelids and under-brow. There’s just such a shine about his eyes and there are very fine ends to them - pointed. He has a slightly lighter version of eye colour to William – an indeterminate mixture, but lighter. Not such big eyes but more finely featured. He’s wearing a very lovely shirt. It’s kind of billowy at the bottom part of the arm and tight round the wrist. He’s wearing a tunic over it. He’s playing some kind of board game. He’s holding something in his hand and using his hand higher up. Shaking dice? Ah, that’s it yes! And I can see a key on a fine chain. We need to move forward to when he’s actually told. Oh, this is when he’s actually told. I’m just seeing a confusing procession of different little artefacts. A manicure set, a whistle. So, personal belongings? Might be, but this isn’t him being told is it? It’s things he’s going to take. I’ll try and go back and slow down. I’ll try and get further into him rather than from the outside. Okay. He’s happy. He’s got his family round him, he’s joking. He’s particularly taking the mickey out of Mahelt. What’s he saying to her then? ‘Fatty!’

She’s saying ‘No I’m not!’ He says ‘Well, all girls end up fat in the end!’ Laughter from me and Alison. ‘That’s the destiny of girls. He says that men only have one fat member and that comes and goes. So he’s being a bit naughty, but enjoying himself. The door’s opening and he’s being called away. He’s really annoyed about it, so he slams the dice shaker on the board. He’s going, but he has to go quite a long way. It’s not next door as I thought it might be. It’s in an entirely different part of the building. It’s round some corridors, up some stairs and into a room with some big windows. It’s very light in there. His father’s got his back to him. His father’s sitting in a chair. Turns his head. He calls him into the room and tells him to sit down. There are one or two other people in the room; they are men, sitting alongside William. William is saying to his son ‘I have no choice.’

William jnr has no idea as yet. He thinks maybe he is being introduced into men’s work and he’s just being brought up a level and brought into some kind of conversation about it and his father is putting it over as an important job for him. William Jnr is wanting to understand. He’s a clever person and he’s intending to do a good and intelligent job. This has always been expected of him, to be able to work things out for himself. When the understanding comes that he’s going to be sent away from home, it’s like a deluge of water going through him. It’s not the gradual introduction to men’s work he was expecting there. It’s also not the life plan that he had been expecting in terms of his training. He’s quite numb. He’s putting on a brave face, a manly face, trying to fit a part he doesn’t feel is made for him. It’s not what he wanted, not what he expected. He’s being very careful, very guarded. He’s giving the right expressions that he knows his father will appreciate and find acceptable. The initial thing is that he doesn’t really want to go, but he’s beginning to see some advantages in going. His father is making it as positive as possible. His father says that William will be able to gain advantages from being at court and learn a lot that he can bring home to his family and to the benefit of his family. William senior expects his son to be a man, and he says ‘but also be my son,’ and he gives William Jnr a hug. He says ‘Never forget what you are, my son, and that I love you, and I do this out of love for my whole family and respect for them, which I trust you share. William Jnr says ‘I do – Sire.’

William Jnr’s leaving is required straight away. He doesn’t even go back to his board game. William goes with him, with his arm round him to his room. - Ah this is why I saw this earlier - where his mother and some other women are already packing his things – so they were already packing them when they were at the board game. His mother is gutted, speechless. She’s not crying but she’s very numbed. She’s doing what she must, yet she can’t do it, and it’s cutting her off from her son. She can’t be emotional with him because she’s trying to control her emotions. She can’t stand it. It’s something she doesn’t want to happen. So she has this look with her eyes of desperation and wanting to hang on which is at odds with the calm exterior of her body, which is doing the task. She wants to hug him to her. So her look has to do it all – has to hug him to her and say ‘be a man.’ It feels very strange for William Jnr when he walks into his room and finds it full of people in motion and touching his personal belongings. He feels really strange. He feels as if he’s losing everything that is familiar to him and this is the first part of the process and going off into something completely unknown. He’s not so upset by it as his mum – about their relationship. Although he loves his mother he doesn’t regard it as vitally important because she’s a woman. It’s only a part of his life, a strand of it. He feels he can live his life without her because he’s a bit beyond that, a bit older. I can’t make out what these other people are doing there. He doesn’t like them being there – two other women. He says ‘It’s all right, I can do it,’ and they say ‘No, it’s better we do it because you have other things to do.’ He’s being taken away to have a bath and clean clothes, and also to get his weapons. I’m seeing a shortish sword and something like a wire on a spool. Also they’ve to get the horse properly accoutred. All the best equipment is going onto his horse. I’m seeing all his weapons being put ready for him. I got the impression that gifts would be going as well. Yes, gifts of weapons are going – swords.

So after he’s set off does he look back at all? It’s taking ages to set off. They are waiting for someone. They’re waiting for the posse to come and collect him. The gate’s opened and I’m seeing rows of men on horses, wearing mail coming in. William senior has a couple of men ready to go with his son, but they are being told no, they are not allowed. I can feel William Senior’s stomach sink when that’s said. William jnr looks at the escort and thinks he would like to fight with them. In his imagination he is strong enough to fight them off their horses. He is thinking ‘I don’t want to go, I don’t want to go!’ But he’s not showing any of that on his face. He particularly doesn’t want to go from his dad, but he has to remain impassive like his dad, so he’s gritting his teeth and putting his nose up to look brave. He just glances at his mother and he recognises the pain in her eyes now because he’s feeling it too. He wants to reach out and hug her. ‘Mama, Mama, goodbye.’ He wanted to hug her and yet they haven’t done any of that. It’s like a sore that hasn’t been closed. It’s from both sides. There hasn’t been that fond farewell. He’s turned his head and put his chin up and he’s brave, but inside he’s crying as the door’s shut behind him. He feels very alone although he’s taking an interest in the jangle of the mail and other stuff as they’re riding. Very sad.

And now Hugh Bigod with his brothers

Now to Hugh’s relationship with his brothers, starting with Ralph.

Alison: We haven’t specified a time so I’m just being taken back randomly here. Hugh’s got his arms round a young boy and it’s like a roly poly and a cuddle and a fight all at the same time, very much a boyish sibling thing. They’re rolling about down this hill now. It’s cub-fighting, play-fighting, but there’s love involved too. So FFW to just before Ralph is going to go off to war, to Bouvines, 1214. Hugh is getting on a horse. I could feel Hugh flying up onto the horse. I can’t tell so easily what Ralph is doing. I’m seeing thumbs busy on a piece of metal. The thumbs are interesting because they are very rounded at the ends with wide, short nails. I think he’s got a polishing cloth and he’s threading the cloth through whatever’s being polished. Hugh’s saying ‘I’ll leave you to it then, I’ll see you when you return….didn’t Hugh go? (I don’t know. He might have done, he might not. It would be useful to find out.) Ralph’s not replying, but as Hugh rides off, he looks up and thinks ‘I might not see you again.’ He’s looking at the sides and back of Hugh as he rides off and it’s like a big boy’s parting – play down the emotions. So find out if Hugh went. I am seeing something with rollers on and another piece in the middle. Pulleys. It doesn’t feel like a war situation. I feel as if I’m in a building, like a mill.’ So he’s not in the middle of a battle field. That’s all I needed to know, no need to go further in this instance.

So now Hugh’s relationship with his brothers Roger and William. Roger first. There’s a bit of an age gap here. Roger is a lovely boy. He’s got smooth hair, longish with a fringe that goes across his face and he’s got really rich brown eyes that are very marble-like and cherry lips. In a lot of ways he takes after Ida. He’s very intelligent and artistic in a learned way, to do with letters. He’s very deep thinking and sensitive. Hugh really appreciates him for that. Roger is not visually artistic like Hugh is, but it’s to do with literary things. Hugh is more like an over figure for him, an encouraging figure but also a disciplined figure. Alison asks if I want to go to an incident but I say not at this point because I’m just taking thumbnail snapshots. I may need more detail later.

Go to William. This is the sweet rascal of the family, the little boy who has curly hair and a slightly longer face. He’s mischievous, chatty, not as solid as some of the other boys but a fair talker. He could charm the birds off the trees and could use this to forge his way in the world, and sometimes never mind the consequences. He’s a little bit wayward, a little bit his own man, doesn’t easily form relationships with other people, even his brothers, so Hugh can’t quite get up close to him. So no real sibling rivalry between them? Hugh has to keep the peace sometimes. There’s always something going on between them but it usually turns out okay because underneath they have family ties and there is a sense of structure in the family. Does Hugh have a favourite brother? I think he probably feels closest to Roger because of the sensitivity they share, but that’s on an emotional level. On a practical level he works well with Ralph. Probably Roger is not such a person of action as the other two.

Here's an excerpt involving Ralph Bigod, younger brother of Hugh, and William Longespee, their royal half-brother.

I asked to see Ralph Bigod and his relationship with his half-brother William before the battle of Bouvines.

Alison: I can see a circular structure with triangular supports to the inside of the circle and a walkway along the tope of the circle – a bit like a wall of death in modern day terms. It’s made of wood. I’m looking down on it. I’m looking across, I’m on other side of it looking across it. I’m on a walkway. I’m looking down into the centre now. There are lots of men in the centre, soldiers, making different formations. It’s a fight I’m seeing. The soldiers below are attacking the soldiers on the walkway and are actually inside the tower. (not sure which faction are in the tower here) The soldiers on the top of the walkway who are not as many as the soldiers down below are throwing things and attacking the people at the bottom. I can see a sling and Ralph’s throwing a net with lots of things in it – rocks and it’s crushed a lot of people. Ralf and William have thrown that net together. I’m seeing them from the outside now and they want to jump after it. They are, they’re jumping after it, they’re jumping on top of the soldiers. God, that’s a hell of a jump! And they’re going at it. They’re fighting, they’re digging daggers in, Oh…It’s a bit like a Robin Hood film! Gosh, there are just a few of the soldiers down there that are left and they are cowering against the wall. The others are just in a heap dead and the few soldiers they had on Salisbury’s side are victorious. They’re dealing with the prisoners now. And Salisbury’s got a sardonic grin – he’s very dashing. Ralph is not as colourful. But he has a strong intent. He’s got sandy coloured hair, good muscles, he’s fairly tall but doesn’t look tall, he’s one of those sort of people. Well proportioned. Looks a bit like a Roman soldier in the gear, those sort of squarish proportions. What do they do next? There aren’t many of their soldiers left after the skirmish, so they (Salisbury and Ralph) have to get involved with tying up the prisoners and God, it’s so boring after all the excitement. But someone has to get on with the nitty gritty and the prisoners are being tied up to posts inside this wall with their hands behind them sitting down. Someone else is giving them drinks of water and there’s a scribe behind him, taking their names and writing them down. He’s also making a note of any wounds they have but no one’s actually doing anything about the wounds.

Does Ralph get on all right with Salisbury? Yes, they’re brothers in arms, but they’re very different though, like chalk and cheese. Ralph I would say is a bit of a foil for Salisbury. It’s like he’s the background and Salisbury is the foreground. Ralph is all sandy, earthy colours and Salisbury is like vivid black and red. He’s like a cavalier if you know what I mean. But no contempt from Ralph in Salisbury? Oh, God no, nothing. There’s nothing. No, not at all. It’s very open. There’s no undercurrent there. And Ralph would be astonished at any suggestion of it. Ralph is the most open sort of person I could ever imagine. So up front. So what you see is what you get. Total honour. Ah, but he has a mischievous element to him as well. A slight wildness and excitement such as when he wanted to fling himself off the wall. That is a brilliant outlet for him to have that excitement in battle, but he’s very open about that as well. Another aspect of him: What you see is what you get, so thus a spade’s a spade to him. He doesn’t go very much into subtleties. He’ll go so far, but when you come back to it, reality is reality for him.

Salisbury - Ralph is part of the plan. Ralph fits into his domain as his half brother, just as everybody else fits in just as long as he’s recognised as the one on top. There’s room in the world for all stations. So Ralph knows his place then? Yes.

Week 2 of Akashic Research Material for TO DEFY A KING

2010-03-28T03:24:00.000-07:00

Week 2.

Here are more excerpts from THE Akashic Record research notes for TO DEFY A KING.

Mahelt interracting with her father at about 10 years old.

Alison: I am there but I’m not understanding what I’m seeing yet. Oh, she’s watching her father ride. I was seeing snatches of her dad as if on one of those photograph things where you take one after another but I think it’s possibly him riding past trees. Yes that’s what it is. They’re riding through the forest. She wants to go faster and he’s saying ‘Not so fast, not so fast, it’s dangerous. You don’t know where the horse might trip.'

I laugh. Alison asks what the matter is. I say I am thinking of a certain young William Marshal flinging his pony about and doing all sorts of things on horseback he wasn’t supposed to do!

She’s saying ‘But daddy, you’re so slow.

He says ‘No, I’m not, for I will get there and those who have more haste than is wise will not. Does that make them then slow?’

‘Oh daddy, I’m not slow. You know I’m not slow.’

And now he has asked one of his retainers to take a lead rein to her horse

‘Oh no, oh no daddy, that’s not fair. Oh no, I’m not going to have that!’

The retainer looks a bit worried and William just puffs out with exasperation.

The lead rein goes on and she rides along in a slump and a sulk – it’s not a good riding position.

So is William finding her a bit of a handful at this age? No…goodness. It’s nothing he can’t handle. It’s easy compared to some of the boys he has to look after. What, other people’s sons or his own? Both. And he has such a love for her. He still loves her as if she was a very little girl. That was just perfect for him. He just adored her like that (fish incident) and a little bit younger as well. And in some ways he still relates to her as if she was that age because it meant so much to him.

Alison says that it didn’t perturb him in the least. It was an easy case compared with some of the people he has to tell what to do.

I asked about the betrothal circumstances of Mahelt Marshal to Hugh Bigod. Whose idea was it in the first place – all that sort of thing. I asked to go to William Marshal in 1203 to see if we could get a start from there.

Alison: Yes, I can feel I’m with William Marshal. He’s sitting up very straight and proud. I can see him on a horse, and it’s not equipped for warfare or fighting, it’s accoutred in a noble style with rich trappings and horse cloths. He’s with a small group of people – men and women. As I try to get closer to his thoughts about Mahelt I feel a strong sense in his solar plexus area, first warm and then thinking of parting with her, I sense pain. I sense I am feeling his love for her first, and then pain as in as well as his love for her he wants to do his best for her - and one of the consequences of that will be the pain of losing her. He’s aware of all that mixture of feeling as he‘s talking but he has to carry on and concentrate on what’s being said and what’s happening outside himself. They’re discussing the settlement.

Who’s they? One is Roger and there’s a younger man in the background who is some kind of financial adviser, perhaps a relative. There are two ladies in the background who are not joining in the conversation. Roger is driving a hard bargain and he’s saying ‘And what will that mean, and where would that demesne end? And how much would that bring a year? His associate is listening carefully and mentally registering all these details and giving Roger the nod every so often.

William doesn’t think this is any bad thing because he reasons someone this careful will be careful with his daughter and will look after her and her interests. Whose idea was it in the first place? Alison says that she wants to say before she moves on to my query that there’s more about William here re the settlement. He is of a mind to be generous. He’s being very open and he doesn’t want to stint and his love is attached to this as well.

Alison now backtracks to when the idea first came into his mind.

He’s watching Mahelt playing. She’s bending over something in the courtyard. I think it’s a barrel – a small one like a well bucket. There are puppies in it. I think they’re having a bath. They’re pale like Labrador puppies and very sweet. Mahelt is having fun being child-like but at the same time being caring and adult. She’s a tremendous mixture, very rare and William is a person who can appreciate this widely. He’s thinking some day she must be married and it’s so vital to have someone in marriage who will accommodate her whole nature and not attempt to screw her down and define her. She needs someone of intellect and depth, someone who will love her for what she is as well as offer her wealth and security. So when did it occur to him that the Bigod family would be the right ones? It was at this time. He’s not looking at her now but has returned into the room. This is unusual for William. He’s got some paper/parchment and a quill. I know that he can’t write, but he’s actually doing things on the paper. I think what he’s doing it making a sort of mind map. It’s a bit doodly, a bit picturish and a bit squiggly. He’s just kind of sorting out thoughts outside himself. Each of these little squiggles represents ideas about her possible marriage. I don’t think Hugh stands out at this stage, but he is in the options list. There are a couple near the bottom that are just ideas but William doesn’t know the people very well, so he needs to gain more knowledge and information about the people. He’s just thinking about how he will go about that – create some meetings so he can get to know these people. And then he gets distracted.

So FFW to how it comes about that Hugh comes to the top of the list.

Hugh is nearer the top of the list. In fact he IS at the top of the list now. The two he wanted more information about have been discounted because there were things about them that weren’t right. There are three in the middle that are still contenders. So now he’s thinking seriously about Hugh. He likes the boy well. He is heir to a good estate and he is a person of good repute and taste. He will treat William’s daughter well. He does just wish that Hugh was maybe a little bit younger because he’d like that for his children that they have a better age match than he had himself, but nevertheless the difference is not too much. (somewhere between 11 and 12 years) And he likes the lad well. The more he becomes familiar with Hugh, the better he likes him.

Now onto Hugh Bigod, Mahelt's husband.

What sort of things does Hugh like to do in his leisure time before his marriage to Mahelt?

Alison: I’m hearing singing already even though I’m not there yet. I can feel the air in the lungs and hear the singing and hear all the background noises of eating and drinking. There’s the smoke of the fire, sheepskins on the floor, warm orange flames, and more songs. When they run out of songs they send out for more songs – ‘Who can remember another one, who can remember another one?’ So this goes on for hours and hours until they go to bed late in the night. It’s very dark. Some people are very tired and some are still humming. The beds are warm because they’re all near the fire and they all go to bed like cubs – all relaxed and curled up. There’s still that lovely atmosphere of togetherness in the room.

So anything else? I can smell grass. The sky is so bright it’s dazzling his eyes. Big clouds but the sky is bright. It’s lovely. He’s standing somewhere on a hillside overlooking a lot of land. The feel of the air coming towards him all unimpeded and just this massive sky. There’s a feeling of being part of it and all the edges blur, the land and the sky, his vision, the warmth of the sun, the warmth of him, the smell of the grass in the air. Everything is blurred and he’s part of the whole. The feeling is quite a high. It’s a spiritual experience for him. He likes to do that (come out on his own) and get that feeling, to get everything else out of his system, all the bad things and the small things out of his system. To clarify and cleanse. (so me time out of the house basically). Yes.

Anything he specifically likes doing other than that? Swords. He’s got a very brightly polished silver sword. The end of it is very bright and prominent. The rest of it is duller to me but that last portion of it is very bright and sharp. He’s making patterns with it, in the dust, and is also making patterns with himself by keeping the sword in the same place but jumping over it, keeping his hand on the hilt. He’s going round the sword, keeping the sword in the same position. So is it part of his training, or is it just fun? It’s a skill. It reminds me of the sort of feeling I got at school and my friends would have got where you do that Chinese skipping – a totally pointless exercise, but there was a skill in getting one piece of elastic over another piece of elastic and then hopping in and out in various different patterns.

Go toe time when the idea of the betrothal to Mahelt was first mooted?

I’m with Hugh. He’s very content, very calm, solid. I can see a bird of prey. They’re using a bird of prey not sure if they are training it or going hunting because the bird seems to be bringing back fish or sticks, doesn’t look like carrion. Anyway. Back to idea of marrying Mahelt. It’s not come from him; he’s not thinking about it at all. Oh, his mother is there at his right side. She’s saying to him. ‘You must marry someday and it behoves you to marry well. We have been careful thus far.’ I get the sense that they’ve been playing a bit of a game and offering alliances just to jolly people along and this has prolonged the game a little bit.

Hugh says ‘Well, it must happen sooner or later; it will happen when it’s ready,’ and he looks at her as if wondering what she means, he looks at her for information, very open eyed. And he says, ‘What is it that you’re suggesting?’ And she says ‘Consider Mahelt of the Marshal family.’

He feels very flat at this and kind of swallows. Why – because she’s still a child to his twenty something?

Yes, I think so. In his mind’s eye he sees William and Isabelle as large figures and he can hardly see little Mahelt as if she’s lying down and kind of insignificant. I think he’s thinking, ‘Yes, well if she survives into adulthood.’ Because the way he saw her was in an effigy position. ‘Yes,’ his mother says,’Well think on it. She will be older before long, and she will be a good catch from a family of such stability and wealth.’

And Hugh says ‘I will think on it’. I don’t think he sees it as any different from the other people they’ve been jollying along so doesn’t get a special feeling about it.

I asked to see Hugh first noticing Mahelt as a Future wife.

Alison: I’m with Hugh and I feel very calm. There are traces of humour glinting through his eyes and up and across his upper stomach. He’s having a very nice meal with lots of people sitting at a long table and they’re conversing as well – having a chit-chat and he’s enjoying it. Ah yes, here’s Mahelt. She’s sitting on the other side of the table to him on the right. Every so often he looks at her. Oh, I see why he’s laughing now! When he looks at her she initially looks coy and embarrassed, but then she darts him this really naughty, playful look that’s strong and just like Mahelt is, and he just thinks it’s so funny, and incongruous with this very young girl. He finds it very amusing and fascinating and exciting. She’s lively and every time he looks at her it sparks something off, so it’s really nice. He likes it, he likes her, but it’s very light hearted. After these little exchanges of glances, he becomes more serious and goes inside himself to check it feels right, which it does. He feels this will work.

Next Sunday. Mahelt and her brothers - the hostage situation, and Hugh and his brothers.

Meeting Mahelt Marshal the Child.

2010-03-20T15:31:00.000-07:00

Mahelt's Birth

Alison: This is William at his most imperturbable. Very much at ease. Playing chequers and looking out of the window. Could do with some exercise. His fingers are itching to get in the saddle and handle the weapons, but there’s nothing to do. The sky outside looks nice but there’s nothing to do. It’s as if there’s a lull and it’s women’s work to do now. It’s as if the women have taken the spotlight. So he’s thinking it will be Isabelle who will be straining her sinews, exerting herself, pushing herself to the limit, but he knows she can cope because she’s a strong, fine woman.

The baby’s born and he’s standing up. He’s just kind of sauntering, he’s not excited. He’s very calm. He’s asking ‘boy or girl?’ and being told ‘girl.’ He’s thinking ‘that’s good – a good balance.’ He goes in the room to see Isabelle and they’re connecting very much at a rational, intellectual level. So it’s ‘how are you, and how was the birth?’ It’s not gushing emotions at all. We’ve seen her before very much in control and it’s just like that. He sits down beside her and then he does put his arm around her and gives her a kiss on the side of the head. The child is then put in his arms. He looks at her and oh, he does like her. He thinks her gorgeous. She’s got dimples. He’s very good, he’s very at ease. He could just sit there all the time with the baby in his arms as if nothing was happening. And they’re just talking about everyday things. He’s taking it all in his stride completely and so is she. He can see that she’s a bit tired now and the baby’s getting restless, so he passes Mahelt back to the nurse and from the door he says goodbye and goes out. And he shouts to everyone ‘A fine baby girl has been born!’ And it’s like an official announcement and they have a celebratory drink and salute. Now he feels free to go out and do something. I can see a boat on the river – a trading boat. So I think he wants to go down and meet it.

Mahelt in small childhood - a scene not in the novel

I asked Alison to go to a scene with Mahelt interacting with her father as a small child. Here she is perhaps 5 or slightly younger. ‘Dad’ and ‘daddy’ were actually medieval terms of useage even though we think it modern. There was total hilarity from us during this scene, so I won’t add brackets with laughter in. Just take it for granted! My questions and comments to Alison are in bold throughout these sessions.

Alison: She’s running up to him with her hand out like that. ‘Daddy, daddy, daddy!’ I don’t know what’s in her hand. I think there’s….Oh .eeeeukk! Oh, this is so gross. Fish bones, like a fish skeleton.

‘Daddy, daddy, daddy, look what I’ve found. Look, look! It’s head’s still on!’ Eeeeukk, it’s so smelly! She’s not bothered about picking it up then?’ No! Oh gosh, I never expected this.

William looks interested until he sees the fish thingy and then he puts his arm well out and just steadies her on her head at a distance and says ‘Oh, that’s very interest darling, very interesting.’ And for a moment he relaxes his arm and she starts heading towards him, so he has to jam the arm out again. ‘Yes, well what do you think that was then?’

‘Daddy, it was a fish, a fish that we ate for our supper last night!’

‘How do you know that Matty?’

‘Because I saw the cook put it in the bin!’

‘So why have you got it out of the bin?’

‘Because I wanted to show it to you daddy. I wanted to show you the fish, because look it’s got lots of things inside, and it’s got lots of bones! Look, they’re all joined on! What’s this daddy?’ And she’s pointing at the end of the backbone and he says

‘That’s where the tail was joined on.’

He’s very forbearing with her isn't he?

Yes.

What does he do then? How does he disarm her?

Alison laughs. That’s exactly what he’s thinking himself. He thinks I’ll be safer if I just have a look at that fish myself.

So he says ‘Let me have a little look at that then. So he takes it in his hand, holding it with the tail bit over that way (Alison indicates) Then he allows her to come a little bit closer but he’s still a bit wary of her hands, so he directs her attention, with her back to him, towards his hand, so he brings her round like that.

He says. ‘What do you think that is then Matty? Ohhhh! (Alison gasps) And before she says anything, he squashes the head and opens the mouth and she shrieks

‘Ooooooh! Daddy, daddy, it did something! Daddy, it’s still alive isn’t it!’ And then she has a bit of a screaming fit, and so all the care he’s taken to keep her hands off him has all gone, because she’s grabbing him. But he’s laughing, he thinks it’s funny.

He says ‘Oh no, child, no, no. It’s me, look, I’ll show you how to do it, then you can do it.’ So he’s actually getting involved in all this now?’ Yes, he is. Oh dear….But she can’t do it because her hands are too little, but when he does it she screams anyway. And then she starts getting interested. Oh no! (Alison is disgusted). Tut. She’s only putting her finger in its mouth. She says ‘Daddy, it hasn’t got any teeth!’

‘No, fish don’t need teeth. Anyway, what about your teeth, let’s have a look at your teeth. Oh, they’re nice teeth. I bet they need something to eat now. Shall we go and find something?’

She doesn’t want to. She’s says ‘Oh but daddy, there’s still some things in there that I want to see!’ And she wants to go back to the rubbish bin and get some more things out.

He says ‘No, not today, we’ll not do that today Matty. We’ll do that another day because I need to keep my cloak clean (he thinks ruefully). He persuades her to go in and get her hands washed. And he passes on the fish to a retainer. It’s a little bit like the royal family when they’re given posies and they pass them on to the person behind them!

Another incident

Alison: Oh, I can sense a lot of open space, glorious open space. It’s golden, it’s honey, it has a lovely taste, feeling, openness and colour. It’s just glorious. And she’s looking over the wall at this scenery. She’s on the crenellations at the top of the walkway. She has a toy in her hand (a doll) in bright colours of red and blue - the cloak is blue. This looks a bit dangerous to me, but she’s holding the doll over the edge and she’s dropped it – just to see what will happen. And now she’s running down the stairs, down, down, down, down, all the way down the stairs. Her hair’s flying back. She’s quite happy and she’s breathless now too. She’s going through a door, a little arch into…I’m seeing it from above now… into the mud at the bottom. She’s not really supposed to go into this mud. I think she’s got a good excuse now because she’s dropped her toy in it. It’s not just mud, there’s all sorts of bits and pieces in there and there are pigs snorting around in it as well.

So she’s looking all over for her toy and she’s having to turn over all sorts of different things looking for it, so she’s getting in a horrendous mess. She’s having a little bit of a tussle with one of the pigs as well which is in the way. She’s put her arms round it and she’s trying to push it away with her shoulder, but it’s much bigger than her. At first she seemed to think the pig was a bit of a toy in itself. She quite likes it. I think all this looking for the toy is a bit of an excuse to do these naughty, dirty, things. Oh, (Alison sounds like a shocked parent) she’s just getting worse and worse now! It’s like in for a penny, in for a pound. She’s just really got involved with it and she’s digging down with her hands in the really soft mud, so it’s all over the top part of her as well. She thinks she’s just seen her doll being sucked down into the mud as she’s clawed her way through it. Ah, she’s got it, although it’s covered in mud now of course. She saw the last bit of the blue as it went down. She’s saying ‘I’ve got it, I’ve got it!’ Oh, and then she realises the state she’s in. And she’s thinking ‘Oh dear.’ She’s come out of the mud and she’s back on the path towards the doorway , but she’s thinking ‘better not go in like this.’ She’s wondering what to do. Ah, she’s seen an animal’s water trough and she goes and dunks her doll in it to wash it. When the doll sank into the mud, it went in head first and the feet were sticking up. That was the last bit I saw going down. Alison says she was surprised to see the doll still intact as it fell such a long way. Alison and author are laughing at this point. Yes, she’s washing the doll and as fast as the doll gets clean, it gets dirty because her hands and arms are all dirty, so that’s muddying the water and ahhh, the more she washes herself the muddier she gets because it really ditches in and spreads so she’s completely muddy now, all over her face, her hair, everything. And she’s wet and she’s cold and starting to shiver and still wondering what she should do.

A grown up has seen her. It’s a man and he’s got a broom and he’s shouting at her. ‘Hey, get away from that trough you…girl! Get away! Because it’s got to be fresh water for the animals and he doesn’t recognise her of course. He thinks she’s just one of the locals. She shouts back ‘But I was just trying to get myself clean!’ And when he hears her voice he realises and he says ‘Oh, my God. Oh my God, young Mistress!’ And he comes over and he takes her hand (– very brave Alison says with a laugh, given the state Mahelt’s in) and he takes her to the door and shouts for a mistress to come forward and take the young lady. Two women come and they say ‘Oh! What have you been doing with her, what’s happened here!’ They think he’s had something to do with it and he has to explain.

And then they say ‘Well what have you been doing Mahelt…No they don’t call her Mahelt, they call her … Maheult…Mahiltay…Maheultay. ‘What have you been doing?’ Her bottom lip starts to go down and she’s starting to cry. Great big tears welling up in her eyes. And she feels so sorry and she feels she’s been disgraced. And she feels embarrassed and all the other things. The two ladies are actually trying to be cross but behind their hands they’re laughing. They’re saying ‘We’ll have to show her mother before we clean her up! She can’t miss this!’

One of them leads Mahelt into a big room with a clean wooden floor but they’re not allowing her to walk about too much. The other one goes off and gets the mother. Isabelle’s already been told the story and she’s laughing too, but pretending to be serious. And she does a pretend scolding as well but can’t stop laughing when she sees poor little Mahelt’s eyes watering again and she says ‘Oh never mind, we’ll get you cleaned up. There’s some water boiling for you right now and we’re going to bring it to you and you’ll have a tub.’

Mahelt says ‘Not here, not in this big room, no!’

And her mother says ‘It will be all right. It’ll be right in front of the fire. It’ll be warm.’

Mahelt is still a bit worried. So one of the ladies is putting a screen round. Looks like sheets on a string they’re putting round, so Mahelt feels better about that than. They do that before even the bath comes. It’s just a tub. Aaah and when she gets in it and they’re washing her, she goes right under the water and she starts to enjoy herself, floating and making her hair float. And when she comes out and she’s being dried, she’s happy again.

Mahelt's appearance and personality
Mahelt is a real daddy’s girl. She adores William. There’s nothing he could do that she wouldn’t adore. Her father is her world. She would be married to him if she could, she loves him that much. With reference to her marriage, she will do as William wants, and will do her best for him. She is able to detach her emotions sufficiently from her dad though, so that she can go into the marriage openly. She has William’s integrity and does everything whole-heartedly. Because of this she takes on an adult role and feels grown up at being left behind when her family go to Ireland. They are trusting her to maintain the family honour and she will do her best. She has a round, delicate face, pale pink skin, dark hair, dark eyes. Although she’s only half grown she has a very refined ‘being’ inside her. She’s mature. She knows life will hold sacrifices and has always known that at some point she will have to leave her family for a husband’s household. Her family feel confident enough to leave her behind. She is also a presence in England that will represent their interests albeit in an understated way. Her relationship in childhood with her 2 older brothers has been one of cub-fighting and fisticuffs due to a certain amount of repressed sibling rivalry. They can’t compete in their father’s affections in the sort of way that an adoring little girl can, and it rather gets up their noses. They have a natural masculine buoyancy that makes them shoulder her out of it, although not in a nasty way. As they grow older they are protective of her. Matilda has a very maternal nature. Her older brothers are distanced from it, but her younger brothers regard her as a mother figure. She loves her little sisters and treats them like dolls. She’s very maternal with them.

Mahelt’s interaction with her two big brothers – William (Will) and Richard.

Alison: Oh! (Alison makes a face at Mahelt’s incorrigible behaviour). Oh, I just saw her… the older one Will, she’s stamping on his feet and kicking him in the shins, and I mean kicking him – hard! And she’s saying ‘You can’t get me. You can’t get me, you can’t do anything to a girl!’ And it’s making his eyes smart. She’s really hurting him. If he flinches and goes for her, she says ‘No you can’t get me. That’s not honourable!’ So they have to put up with being attacked like that. Richard says, ‘Oh come on, let’s go and play somewhere else. So the boys go off and she follows them at a distance – not much of a distance. They’re having a game with a really fat little pony. Will’s hiding one side of it. Richard is the other side with a wooden stake like a spear and Will has to get on the pony from his side. He’s crouching down so he can’t be seen from the other side of the pony and the game is that he has to get on the pony and Richard has to pretend to attack him and steal the pony from him. And Mahelt wants to join in. She wants the tail of the pony. Her idea is to plait the tail. She’s saying ‘Leave the pony alone it’s mine.’ And they’re saying ‘Clear off girl. You’re only a girl.’ So they’re paying her back in kind for what she said about boys.

She says ‘I don’t care about you, I’m going to tell my daddy, you won’t let me play.’ (Her daddy, not her mummy?) Absolutely, she’s calling in the big guns. So they say, ‘okay, you can be the saddle maker.’ And when they bring the horse in after the fight you have to make a new saddle and repair the old one.

Before when I was looking at him, the horse didn’t have a saddle on, and now I’m seeing it, it’s got this white cloth draped over it with embroidery on, so it’s not a real saddle, it’s a cloth with embroidery on it. So they say you can do that, and she says ‘but I don’t want to do that!’ So they ask ‘What do you want to do?’ And she really pushes it and says ‘I want to ride it. And they say, ‘oh well go and ride it then!’ And she says ‘No, I want you to come with me. You’ve got to hold the reins! I think Richard will do this up to a point, but Will thinks ‘Oh, I’ve had enough of this. And he says ‘I’m going to get some hay for the pony.’ And that’s his excuse to go and he leaves. So she’s got Richard all to herself and she’s saying ‘Go this way, go that way. No, go round again. Let’s go out into the field. Pretend I’m on a big charger now and I’m galloping over the field!’ And you’ve got to be the horse too, because this isn’t big enough for a charger.’ Ah, eventually she falls off and she falls off more or less on top of Richard. And they kind of struggle about in the grass and then start laughing and then they just roll about in the grass and they’re lying on their fronts, fiddling with the bits of grass and clover and stuff and the sun’s warm and they’re just relaxing in that childhood frame of mind of finding it all interesting just doing nothing. So generally she gets on better with Richard than she gets on with Will? Yes, much better. Will hasn’t got patience for her. He’s likely to get in a bad mood with her, I think because they’re both quite imperious.

Here's an audio clip I put up at youtube featuring a section from an Akashic Record session.

That's all for now. Another post to follow next Sunday!